One Night of Warmth
For all the tension that had gripped him, the screening ended without a single incident. Agent Jang didn't let his guard down until the reports came in confirming that every investor had made it safely home. But nothing happened. Truly nothing.
Why?
Agent Jang was baffled. Why hadn't he done anything? Kang Seok isn't even around anymore.
There was no way he didn't know what Kang Seok had meant to Horn. Which was exactly what made it so puzzling. That precious "Seokkie hyung" was gone — so why was Horn still here?
No twenty-four-hour surveillance could be airtight. There would always be a crack somewhere. Wasn't slipping through that crack the obvious move? Had there ever been a night with more openings than tonight?
His mind tangled itself in knots. Even lying in bed, sleep refused to come.
["Haah…."]
At some point, the hour had slipped past midnight. Agent Jang had been staring wide-eyed at the ceiling when, all at once, he shot upright.
["Forget it."]
He grabbed nothing but his car keys and bolted out of the house. Perhaps because it was the dead of night, the trip to the facility took less than five minutes.
["Agent Jang? Why are you here at this hour…."]
["I need to talk to H. Open the door."]
["You're going in like that?"]
The staff member asked with a dazed look. Agent Jang had left home without a second thought about changing, so he was in nothing but comfortable everyday clothes. It was the first time any of them had seen him in something other than his combat uniform, and they couldn't help sneaking glances.
["Just open it. Quickly."]
Agent Jang frowned and urged them on. At his uncharacteristic impatience, the staffer, looking thoroughly confused, pressed the button.
The moment the heavy steel door swung open, a foul stench seeped out.
["Ugh."]
Agent Jang grimaced despite himself. How does anyone sleep in here?
A sour tang threaded through the dizzying odor that stung his nose. It was a smell deep as a swamp, impossible to escape — the reek of a corpse rotting away.
["H."]
["……."]
Horn lay on the mattress with his back turned. Beside him, Kang Seok's decomposing body lay neatly arranged.
["H. There's something I want to ask you."]
Horn answered without taking his eyes off what had once been Kang Seok.
["Can't it wait until tomorrow? I'm busy right now."]
Horn's fingers were gently stroking the corpse's forehead. It was at the stage where even the slightest pressure would collapse the flesh, so it had to be touched with care.
Agent Jang looked at Horn, who wouldn't even spare him a glance.
["……Still, give me some time. Please."]
Though he hadn't the slightest intention of it, a soft tone slipped out of Agent Jang's mouth. A gentle way of speaking that reminded one of someone.
Horn's slowly moving fingers stopped. After a long stillness, he gradually pushed himself up.
["What do you want to know?"]
Maybe it was his imagination, but Horn's face looked unusually pale.
["Today…."]
Agent Jang hesitated for a moment. This conversation was being broadcast in real time to the others — recorded, every word of it. Anything said aloud could never be taken back.
Even so, Agent Jang asked.
["Why didn't you run today?"]
["……."]
["You know you could have. Why? Why are you still here?"]
A precarious silence settled over the room. Horn stared at him intently, saying nothing.
["That makes it sound… like I have some reason I should run."]
The unexpected reply made Agent Jang furrow his brow.
["Don't you want to get out?"]
["Hmm. Why bother? Seokkie hyung's here, after all."]
When Horn grinned and gestured beside him, Agent Jang's mouth opened and closed before lapsing into silence. Just then, a maggot wriggled out of the corpse and clung to Horn's hand. Horn gazed at the little creature — endlessly moving just to stay alive — with something like pity.
["……I know. I know Seokkie hyung is dead, that this is nothing but a lump of meat. I know there's no reason for me to stay here either."]
["Then why…."]
["Running away, huh. Yeah, running sounds great. Fine — say I get out of here. Then what?"]
Horn's black eyes turned, slowly, sluggishly, toward Agent Jang.
["Is there anywhere I can go?"]
["……."]
["Hm? Where am I supposed to go?"]
Horn trembled as he laughed. The corners of his mouth lifted, carving thin lines into his cheeks.
["In here or out there… it's all the same to me."]
["There are ways to live a normal life out there."]
["Normal? How do I live normally with a body that's anything but? Spend every waking moment terrified of being found out? Wow, that sounds thrilling."]
Horn gave a twisted smile.
["Running wouldn't mean a thing. When I die… even if I die, I'll die right here."]
Right here, on this very mattress. Beside hyung. Horn spoke it like a vow, and his expression was strange. The corners of his mouth were raised, yet tears were streaming down his face; his body shook and shuddered, yet his voice was perfectly calm.
Agent Jang quietly watched him. His lips parted as if to say something, then closed again.
["I see…."]
["……."]
["Thanks for answering."]
Agent Jang nodded a few times, then let out a long, deep sigh.
["Feel like I can finally breathe. Hey, scoot over."]
["…?"]
Horn's eyebrows twitched.
["The mattress is plenty big. Even with you and Kang Seok on it, there's room to spare. Just for tonight, squeeze me in."]
["What are you— what are you doing right now?"]
["What does it look like? I'm lying down. I haven't slept."]
Ignoring Horn's flustered expression, Agent Jang flopped onto the mattress. The revolting stench made his head throb, but he ignored it as best he could. When he actually closed his eyes as if to sleep, Horn frowned deeply.
["Are you doing this on purpose?"]
["Doing what?"]
["Imitating Seokkie hyung. That's what this is, isn't it?"]
At the sharp, bristling voice, Agent Jang cracked one eye open. Horn — composed and detached the entire time — was wearing the face of a frightened child for the very first time. Agent Jang felt the bitterness settle in all over again.
Your swamp is still Kang Seok.
["Why would I imitate Kang Seok? Even dead, the guy's useless to me. What's there to like?"]
["Then why are you suddenly acting all friendly?"]
["I have no intention of becoming your friend. I'm just going to sleep for a bit and leave."]
["You could sleep at home."]
["Once I walk out of here, I can't come back."]
If word of this conversation reached his superiors, he was a dead man. Even in the most charitable reading, he'd be demoted at best. Encouraging an escape, of all things, when his job was to tighten security even further. By his own assessment, it was grounds for dismissal. Agent Jang murmured with an odd sense of relief.
["Circumstances being what they are, I'm just making an exception for you. I never got to say a proper goodbye to Kang Seok either."]
["……."]
["Let me stay one night. Come tomorrow, you won't have to see my face again anyway."]
Horn didn't answer for a long, long time. Only after a great while did Agent Jang feel someone settling in beside him.
One corpse. One experimental subject. One human being. On that mattress, silence and crowding coexisted.
["……How did you two meet?"]
Only after a considerable stretch did Horn ask in a voice like something crawling out of a hole. There was no longer any reason to hide it, so Agent Jang spoke freely about his first meeting with Kang Seok.
["We were kids, and there was just nothing to eat. Kang Seok and I searched every corner of the village. We even went through the trash cans — still nothing."]
["And?"]
["So we ate bugs. I ate them because I was starving, but Kang Seok said they were actually delicious."]
["Seriously? He thought bugs tasted good?"]
["How would I know what goes on in that head of his? Look — there's a bug in his mouth right now. Still eating bugs even after death. What a lunatic."]
Horn burst out laughing before he could stop himself. He knew it was no laughing matter, knew the words hadn't been meant as a joke — and yet, somehow, it was funny.
Their conversation carried on, threatening to break off but never quite doing so. Strangely enough, the atmosphere was cozy. Before he knew it, a smile had crept onto Agent Jang's lips too, and Horn had begun chattering away like his old self.
["Agent Jang. I've been wondering something."]
["What."]
["Why did you forbid me from calling you hyung? Did you hate it that much?"]
["Ah, that."]
Agent Jang chuckled and turned his head — then flinched at the sight of Horn's face.
["Hey. Your face…."]
["Hm?"]
["Are you sick? Why are you so pale? Hold on, just—"]
Horn's face had gone past white into an eerie blue. Startled, Agent Jang moved to get up, but Horn laughed and held him back.
["Why are you overreacting? If something were wrong, the staff would've come in already."]
Just answer the question. The words came naturally enough. Did they? Agent Jang sat back down in a daze and looked toward the CCTV camera. True — if there had been anything wrong with Horn's health, the staff would have rushed straight in.
["So — why did you stop me from calling you hyung?"]
With Horn pressing him with questions the whole time, his head only grew foggier. Agent Jang sensed something was off somewhere in the back of his mind, but he opened his mouth all the same.
["I just… didn't want to pretend it wasn't what it was."]
["What's that supposed to mean?"]
["I came here for the H Project."]
Agent Jang's eyes turned to Horn. Eyes that were always businesslike and hard had loosened into something soft.
["Helping with your experiments is my role. Nothing I do changes that. I thought I couldn't afford to forget it."]
["……I don't understand."]
He hadn't been asked to make him understand. Agent Jang shrugged.
He was a far lesser man than Kang Seok. He couldn't have kept a clear head while a "test subject" called him hyung. The only way he'd managed not to pity the boy — bloodied and broken from the aftermath of brutal experiments — was by endlessly reminding himself that this was a test subject. That was why. He had deliberately kept his distance from Horn. To do his role properly, he couldn't let himself be swayed by emotion.
Kang Seok would laugh if he heard this.
If he had truly seen Horn as nothing more than an experimental subject, he shouldn't have been here at all. Genuinely baffled, of all things, by the reason the subject hadn't run. In the end, he'd been preoccupied with this "boy" from start to finish. A spectator's detachment so complete it was disgusting.
It would've been better to treat him the way Kang Seok did.
Kang Seok had at least given him room to breathe. Agent Jang had been no help to Horn at all — not once. Facing the truth at last, Agent Jang sneered at himself. Pathetic, really.
["Try it now. Call me hyung — whatever you like."]
["……What?"]
["Calling me hyung. You have my permission."]
Horn stared at him for a long moment, then sharply turned his head away.
["Forget it. That would be so cringy—"]
["Tell me about it. I surprised even myself. Thought I was reading lines from a drama."]
When Agent Jang snorted, Horn laughed along with him. The conversation continued — bleak around the edges, yet carrying some subtle, aching warmth.
Hours passed like that.
["……."]
Agent Jang's eyes blinked slowly, then closed for good.
Horn gazed quietly at the sleeping human. He let his gaze drift, unhurried, over the angular face so utterly unlike Seokkie hyung's — the thick eyebrows, the large ears.
Horn stirred and shifted sideways, little by little. A moment later, his forehead came to rest against Agent Jang's shoulder.
It struck him as absurd that such a small point of contact could carry warmth, and Horn laughed. He stayed like that, feeling that warmth for a very, very long time.
Then, quietly, he raised his hand.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The sound of Horn's fingertips tapping went on and on.
Several hours later, morning had come. Agent Jang squinted against the bright lights as he opened his eyes.
Where am I?
For a moment he couldn't make sense of his surroundings. Then he felt a sharp ache in his right shoulder and turned his head.
["……Oh."]
Horn was asleep with his face buried against Agent Jang's shoulder. It was a sight he had never once imagined in his life, and Agent Jang let out a hollow laugh. And yet something puzzled him.
["Why am I still here?"]
He'd assumed the staff would come in midway and throw him out.
Unless… they gave me enough time for a proper last goodbye?
He was lifting Horn's head, gently lowering it onto the mattress, when—
["…!"]
The sight before his eyes made Agent Jang's blood run cold.
Horn's face was smeared with blood.